As is so often the case, the boyfriend is to blame. When Ashley Kerekes from Massachusetts had her name affectionately shortened to "The Ashes" she didn't think anything of using this moniker for her Twitter account – at least not until the actual Ashes began and cricket fans across the globe started unwittingly namechecking her in their tweets.

At first, @theashes batted away mentions with "I'm not the cricket feed", which was soon upped to a sterner: "Check profiles before you send mentions, it's incredibly annoying and rude." Finally, she cracked, screaming: "I AM NOT A FREAKING CRICKET MATCH!!!!!", prompting her cheekier new followers to respond: "We know, you're a five-day series of cricket matches, specifically between England and Australia."

Happily, once top commentators such as Jonathan Agnew (@aggerscricket) picked up on the story, she rediscovered her sense of humour, offering to read up on the rules of the game to please the 5,000 new followers she had acquired in one weekend. Meanwhile, the Sydney Morning Herald has reported that Kerekes now plans to sell T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "I'm not a freaking cricket match!!" (We know, you're a five-day series. . . etc).

There's even a hashtag: #gettheashestotheashes. Quick to spot some good publicity, especially after its recent engine troubles, Qantas offered to fly Kerekes to Australia so she too could enjoy the visceral thrill of watching 22 men hit a ball around some grass for five solid days only for it all to be declared a draw. Unfortunately the offer didn't appear to extend to Kerekes bringing along a friend, so she has so far declined the offer.

And as one wag noted, there was "no mention of a flight home. Is this Australia's way of keeping @theashes?"